I bought a new truck--a 2012 Toyota Tundra. After buying it, I realized that it had a front end leveling kit--a front end lift that is intended to raise the front of the truck to be the same height as the rear and eliminate the rear end rise that is designed into a truck. So the problem is that the rear end rise of the truck is intended to compensate for a load so that your rear end does not sit lower than your front. That concnered me a bit. So I just got my WDH adjusted right and indeed, the rear end of the truck sits about an inch lower than the front with the trailer hooked up. (this is with the trailer loaded up with all but water--not sure how a full tank of water would affect it)Should I be concerned about this? If so, I am thinking that adding air bags to the rear may help to fix this problem. What do you think?thanksMatt

Tundra owner here; my first choice would be to remove the front end leveling kit. However, if you're only 1/2" lower in the rear, I would not worry about it. I went with Timbrens on the rear of my Tundra btw.

I think I would remove the front end leveling kit and forget about adding air bags to the rear.Ron

Yeah...removing the leveling kit is an option. I am not mechanical myself--not sure how much labor it would be to do that / how much it would cost me. My idea of the airbags was that it might actually be cheaper to get those than to remove the leveling kit, or comparable in price perhaps. Also, just modified my post--the rear end is actually about an inch lower than the front and not a half inch. Matt

Removing the leveling kit would be the best option, how difficult it is depends on how it was installed....if it's a bolt on it should be easy to remove. However if they replaced OEM parts with new/different kit parts, then you will be looking at parts costs in addition to labor costs to remove.Maybe snap a few pics of the front suspension and post on one of the Toyota forums and see if anyone can identify the kit and tell you what's involved in removing it. There's likely only a couple of kit options for your specific truck, so somebody should recognize it, not like there's a hundred choices....This Rough Country Kit says it's easily removable and easy to return the vehicle to its stock height.Here's an assortment of kits at Summit Racing, see if you can see one that looks familiar.

Just for costs comparisons sake, we had air bags installed last week in our '12 Dodge 1500 Laramie. It was $243 labor and materials. In California where everything is more expensive....

Rear End Sag with Tundra Suspension Leveling Kit???

camp-n-family
Explorer
Jun 06, 2014
Over compensating for the lift by increasing the tension on the hitch is not a good solution.

My dealer recommended the option of just adding a 1 or 1.5 inch block under the leaf springs in the rear in order to bring the rear up a bit. He thought that air bags might make a rough ride.

^This would be the easiest and cheapest solution with the least affect on towing, especially if you like the lifted look. I have 2.5" lift on the front and put 1" blocks on the rear to keep the rake. It had no affect on towing. If you look at most HD trucks these days, they come from the factory with rear lift blocks.

Airbags will stiffen the suspension and can make for a rough ride when unloaded. The rubber bags are really stiff and you need to maintain a minimum of 5psi in them. The double bellow style seem to be more forgiving than the singles.
APT
Explorer
Jun 06, 2014
I personally think air bags are the devil for towing a trailer large enough that requires a WDH. Remove the front lift.
bowler1
Explorer
Jun 11, 2014
I ended up taking off the leveling kit. It tows much better now. However...when I got the leveling kit taken off they discovered that there was also a 1 inch block in the rear. I did not take that off yet. Wanted to see how it did with it still on there.

So right now I have it stock in the front and still have the 1 inch blocks in the rear.

I am probably going to get rid of the blocks too.

The truck rides much better without the leveling kit. Anyone who says they do not affect ride quality is wrong.

matt
handye9
Explorer II
Jun 12, 2014
If towing is better and ride is better, I would leave the rear blocks alone.
gmw_photos
Explorer
Jun 12, 2014
If it were mine, I would put both ends back to stock height, and then work out details and mods, if needed, from that starting point. Factory engineers are usually pretty smart dudes.

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Rear End Sag with Tundra Suspension Leveling Kit???

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